Protector of Ice
by Aaliyah Kitten
Summary: Eleanor Kane was always friendly to Victor Fries, but when Arkham Asylum is shut down, Eleanor doesn't try to find another job as a doctor- instead, she sticks with Mr. Freeze, knowing that if he found a cure then there would be no reason for him to continue his life of crime. This doesn't turn out in the best of circumstances, especially when Arkham City comes into play.
1. Chapter 1

**First Batman story, so don't criticize me TOO hard. You can still criticize me, though. I own nothing in the world of Batman: Arkham City besides the wonderful Eleanor Kane.**

_**Prologue (At Arkham Asylum)**_

"Freeze!" A voice ordered. Eleanor Kane stopped in her tracks, her hands caught at her sides. "Turn and face me." She turned slowly, scared for her fate, her hands trembling. "Now!"

She whirled, her hands clasped together to keep them still, and looked upon the eyes of the one and only Victor Fries- Mr. Freeze. _The name is still ironical to this day,_ she thought._ Freeze. Fries._

"Doctor Eleanor Kane," he identified.

"I'm not a doctor, Fries," she told him, wondering how she hadn't figured out that it was Fries from the beginning. "At least, not a very good one."

"How is that identifiable?" Mr. Freeze questioned. From the very beginning of them being put together at Arkham Asylum, doctor and patient, the two weren't enemies as other pairs were. They were very friendly- at least, as friendly as they could be.

"What are you doing out of your cell?" Eleanor demanded, purposefully avoiding the question.

"I have been allowed a few minutes out. I decided to do something amusing."

"Scaring doctors is amusing?" Kane sighed. "Why aren't you being supervised?"

"I'm not a child, Eleanor."

"No, but you're a super-villain, Victor." Eleanor yawned, covering her mouth.

"Do I tire you?"

She shook her head. "I haven't got just you to look over, you know?" She yawned again before continuing. "You're the most calming out of all of them.

"Anyway, come with me. I should show you something, now that you're allowed out of your cell." Eleanor turned, walking briskly away, knowing he would follow.

Obediently, Mr. Freeze did as she said and followed her to a lab that was, before their arrival, empty of people. The lab was a light shade of blue, due to the fact that there was ice everywhere. It had numerous tables strewn around with medical and scientific equipment. "What is this?" He asked, looking around.

"My lab," the doctor replied simply. "I've been writing down your ideas for how to make a cure, and have been testing them. So far, though, it hasn't been as successful as I would like. Now that I think about it, all this ice is not the best idea for me. Keep slipping and spilling stuff everywhere."

"Why?" Fries demanded.

"Why what? Why was it not successful? Why is this lab filled with ice? Why do I keep slipping? Why-"

"Why are you doing this for me? I've done nothing in return."

"Would you like to know something, Victor?" Eleanor asked as she walked over to one of the tables. "Life doesn't move how you think. I found your hypotheses for the cure interesting, a good challenge, and..." Eleanor trailed off, deciding not to continue.

"And what?" He asked, turning his gaze from the room to her face, which was turned away from him.

"...Nothing." Eleanor's hands trembled a bit as she tipped some green liquid into another flask.

"Are you alright, Doctor?" Mr. Freeze walked over to Eleanor quickly. Eleanor shivered, realizing she didn't bring her jacket.

"Just cold." Eleanor shook her head, shaking her body a small amount before getting back to work, staring at the notes she took before.

"That won't work," he told Eleanor.

"Too much?" She questioned him.

"Yes." Wordlessly, Eleanor tipped out a little of the green liquid back into the flask- but some of it spilled onto her right hand. Almost immediately, it started hardening- causing Eleanor to scream in fear. "Eleanor!" Fries cried out in alarm, grabbing her hand and inspecting it. "What was the liquid?"

"That!" She said, pointing to a patch of notes on the notepad with her good hand.

"Dammit, that's not what I thought it was- it wasn't supposed to be green, among other things," he cursed, looking over the notes.

"It hurts, Victor, it hurts," Eleanor cried, her legs crumpling to the floor beneath her.

"Eleanor, get up, we need to stop its flow," Victor ordered. Already, though, her forearm started to become grayish, which would then become black, like her hand already was- which Eleanor had noticed through the pain. She injected herself with something the ice man couldn't identify- and it made him cautious. "What are you doing?"

"It stops the flow of everything at a plane," she mumbled as her forearm got blacker and blacker- but the grayness didn't spread to her upper arms. "It seemed to work before and it seems to work now."

"Where did you get it?"

"Made it up. I think I was messing with some chemicals way back when I was young and I made this. Don't know how the heck I did it. Thanks, me, for being old enough to take notes." Eleanor screamed once more before her head bowed down tiredly. A few moments passed, but nothing happened to her arm further.

"It doesn't kill living things," Fries figured out, "it turns them to metal."

Eleanor quickly grabbed a knife from the table- _Why would you need a knife? _Victor wondered- and proceeded to stab the metal arm. She did so multiple times before dropping the knife and getting up. Both Eleanor and Victor inspected it. "Not even a scratch," Eleanor marveled, her pain gone.

"What kind of knife was that?"

"I dunno. I don't care about what kind of knife it is when I buy it." Victor stared at her until she complied grumpily. "Beryllium."

"Where do you get a beryllium knife?"

"Stop asking me these questions, Victor. My arm is stronger than beryllium and you're asking me where I got a knife."

"It begs an interesting answer."

"The answer doesn't matter, and I believe you are probably due back for your cell."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 1: Arkham City**_

It was quiet in the forensic lab of where Joker stationed him- the Steel Mill, perhaps. He hadn't noticed. He walked around briskly, still working on a cure for both the Joker and Nora, thinking about Nora. _I need Nora here... _his mind continued to think as he wandered throughout the room. The calmness suited him, but he didn't like it. _I need Elea (_Pronounced _Ella) too.__  
_

Suddenly, there was a ruckus behind him. "Oh, Mr. Freeze!" the Joker's hysterical voice called through the intercom, then was cut off by a hideous cough. "I've got someone here for you!"

"Get your filthy hands off of me, you fools!" Victor Fries whirled around, recognizing the voice that was coming from the chaos. "If I knew how the hell to operate this damn metal arm you would all be dead by now!" She screamed before the doors in front of Victor opened.

In front of him was his friend Eleanor Kane, beat down to her knees by the ten or so goons surrounding her. She looked up at Victor, her face bruised up and her whole body bloody. "It's not just my blood," Eleanor commented with a sneer at the goons, noticing his stare, before bowing her head. "Though most of it is."

"Unhand her," Victor ordered, and the goons threw her in before retreating, shutting and locking the door behind them. Eleanor coughed out some blood before attempting to stand. At once, Victor was at her side.

"Where have you been?" Victor asked her. Eleanor grabbed a handkerchief before coughing more blood into it.

"Well," her voice squeaked. She cleared her throat before trying again, "I was told to go away after the little incident at Arkham. I found a job here, as a doctor. They told me to take care of the prisoners, and they'll care for me- food, shelter, et cetera. So, I came here. The door was shut behind me, and almost immediately I was surrounded by Joker's goons. I used this metal fist to punch some of them, which is how not all of this blood is mine, but they quickly beat me down and took me to Joker. After a small while, the goons were told to take me to a place I was not aware of at the time, and I tried to fight back again. Yet again, I was beat down, and now I'm here." Eleanor, while telling the story, was wiping away the blood from her face, looking at it with disgust.

"Why did you fight back?" Victor asked, leading her to the bathroom. She shivered before answering,

"I'm not about to be the petty doctor who can't do anything to defend herself. Besides, they would've beat me up anyway, probably." Eleanor had another coughing fit before groaning in disgust. "Ugh, I really shouldn't have come."

Victor felt a pang of sadness, but ignored it as she continued, "So, what are our tasks?"

"Pardon?"

"I was sent here for a reason, was I not?"

"...Yes." Victor turned, walking towards the door since they were in the bathroom. Before closing the door, he told her, "I'll tell you everything once you're better." He closed the door.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY SPARE CLOTHES?" Victor heard Eleanor shout. Victor chuckled before shouting back, "IN THE CLOSET!"

* * *

"So, we're curing Joker and trying to cure Nora, then?" Eleanor mumbled, rubbing a towel through her hair.

"Yes."

"Have you gotten Joker's cure into progress?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"...It is missing something. It breaks down almost immediately."

Eleanor stood, her hand no longer moving the towel. "...Well, we better get to work."


End file.
